India women were blown away by Australia women in the final match of the 5-match T20I series by 54 runs in Mumbai. With this defeat, Australian women clinched the series by 4 matches to 1. Australia Women had earlier claimed the series by defeating India women by 7 runs in the 4th T20I played at the Brabourne Stadium. Ashley Gardner was declared both “Player of the Match” and “Player of the Series” for an outstanding series.
Earlier the Indian women’s team won the toss and elected to chase. They had Australia 67 for 4 within the 10th over of their inning. However, a different story unfolded after that.
At 67 for 4, Ashley Gardner and Grace Harris came together and after an initial repair work to their inning, blasted off to a 129-run partnership in 62 balls. The pair powered their team to 196 at the end of their allocated overs.
None of the Indian bowlers were spared and eventually, no one finished with an economy of less than 8 rpo. Gardner scored 66 of 32 deliveries and Harris 64 from 35. For India, Anjali Sarvani, Deepti Sharma, Shefali Verma and Devika Vaidya picked up a wicket each.
Chasing a mammoth 197 for a consolation victory, Indian women lost Mandhana early. Australia kept chipping away with crucial wickets and managed to restrict their opponent to 142. Deepti Sharma’s 34-ball 53 was the only impactful contribution to the Indian total.
Australia women will next host Pakistan women at home for a 3-match T20I series from where they will go to South Africa to participate in the Women’s T20 world cup 2023. India women will participate in a Tri-series comprising West Indies and South Africa in January 2023 before the T20 world cup.
